Sports Illustrated Thursday will "introduce the Vault, a free site within SI.com that contains all the words Sports Illustrated has ever published," as well as images, video and other material, in a searchable database, according to Richard Perez-Pena of the N.Y. TIMES. The material can be "reborn on the Web as an inexpensive way to attract readers, advertisers and money." Time Inc. Exec VP John Squires said that the move "quadruples the site's volume." Squires: "We'll have to work our way up the search algorithms over time, but eventually, someone searches Johnny Unitas, and SI.com is going to pop up." Nielsen Online estimates SI.com already draws more than six million unique visitors each month, and SI execs "predict the Vault could add five million monthly readers." SI Group President Mark Ford said that the Vault is "expected to account for 5[%] of the magazine's online revenue in its first year, and more in the future." The Vault's search engine lets a reader search by athlete, coach, team, sport, decade and year, and allows readers to see "high-resolution images of old issues of the magazine as it appeared in physical form, including ads, using a mouse to 'turn' pages." Meanwhile, a "growing number of publications are opening their own vaults -- if only partially -- or dropping pay requirements, and they say it makes a big difference in attracting readers"http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/business/media/17mags.html?scp=1&sq=si+vault&st=nyt
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